Black Vinyl 10" Limited to 109 hand numbered copies!

Matching breezy, Bossa nova-tinged sophistication with softly spiralling psychedelia, Testbild! arrive in the Quindi lounge as though they've always been there. On their 12th album, Bed Stilt, the Swedish collective cast their attention back to the earlier days of their 25-year trip through sweetly mysterious pop-not-pop rendered in warm tones and shot through with surrealism. It's tricky to get a precise fix on the story and structure of Testbild! The project was spearheaded by Petter Herbertsson in his hometown of Malmö in the late 90s, although the story on their website credits the inspiration and source material to a chance meeting and unpublished manuscript from a retiring scientist. The collective's evolution since then is a tangled web of facts and fiction spun by a revolving cast of collaborators including Siri af Burén, Katja Ekman, Rikard Heberling, Douglas Holmquist, Mattias Nihlén and Petter Samuelsson. Along the way, their music has touched on chamber pop, post-punk and modern jazz with the elaborate harmonies and catchy songwriting charm of the Canterbury scene. The tracks which make up Bed Stilt were in fact track recorded in Malmö back in the mid- 00s, lying in wait for the right opportunity to be brought to light with some delicate overdubs and finishing flourishes in the here and now. The core musicians working on the record were Herbertsson and Douglas Holmquist on a similarly expansive list of vocals, guitars, bass, synths and keys, Siri af Burén on lead vocals and Mattias Nihlén on synths and additional mixing. Meanwhile Tomas Bodén - better known as Civilistjavel - lent some additional synth work as well as mastering the record. Musically, Testbild! stay true to their idiosyncratic approach on Bed Stilt with six immaculately rendered sojourns through lilting harmonies and brushed rhythms, feeling nostalgic but beguiling in equal measure. Theirs is a luxurious sound, not least on the opening strains of 'The First New Years Eve,' which purrs to life draped in silky Rhodes and chiming vibes. Behind this comfortable veneer the enigmatic lyrical themes unfurl through Herbertsson, Holmquist and af Burén's vocal harmonies like fractalized puzzles waiting to be solved. The finger-picking delicacy and languid harmonica of 'Streams' strike a pastoral mood neatly countered by the elegant slide into dislocated ambience for the track's final stretch. By contrast, 'And Her Eyes Are Red' surges with a big beat urgency which plays beautifully with the mellow jazziness of the chord sequences, boldly toying with song structure to dart down curious tangents without losing the immediate impulse of a great pop record. Somewhere in this tension between clarity and chaos we can understand the addictive charm of Testbild! - a band steeped in the considerable craft of making accomplished and unconventional music so very easy to sink into. If that doesn't make for a perfect addition to the Quindi catalogue, we don't know what does.

Tracklist:
A1. The First New Years Eve
A2. Streams
A3. And Her Eyes Are Red
B1. Cardamom Song
B2. Soft Winged and Frail
B3. Water On The Moon
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Tracklist:
A1. Mazzara Return
A2. Half Baked
B1. Hustle
B2. Respiro feat. Penelope Rossano
B3. Respiro (Instrumental)

Calabra are London based duo DJ Toni Rossano and musician Neil Simons.

Having hung out as teenagers in the Midlands the friends went on to pursue different musical paths in the capital. Neil has engineered, mixed and produced a wide variety of artists whilst Toni, a DJ/Producer, was part of the pirate soul explosion as Blackbeard in the noughties and currently dabbles under the Gospel guise as The Showfa. Now many moons later...

The idea for Calabra was born during fuzzy after-party hours on the pebbles of a brisk Brighton beach and is the musical yearning for adventures on warmer Balearic shores. Sunshine inspired beats and melodic guitars lead a cast of analogue synths, percussion, fender bass, oboe and voices all lovingly coloured by 70’s art rock, New Age, folk and inspired Ghanaian High Life.

Picked up by Gerd Janson the Calabra EP features four debut tracks. The leading ‘Mazzara Return ’has a midtempo Balearic-like feel with lead guitar, house-up styled beats and electronica inspired atmospherics. Followed by the sci-fi synth driven ‘Half Baked ’with melodic spanish guitar riffs and sequenced synthesizers for that old skool analogue sounding thrill! ‘Hustle ’launches with a rolling live played bass and synth line on top of the guitar chill-out like licks fused with congas, bongos and cowbell rhythm courtesy of Yam Who? percussionist Des Morgan. ‘Respiro ’the EP’s grand finale introduces vocalist and songwriter Penelope Rossano and is a folk/jazz style ballad showcasing not
only a poetic gentle beauty in the song but also her own oboe composition to make a perfect book ending with the bonus of an instrumental added for measure for this debut EP on International Feel.






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